A Brief Overview On The Essential Oils’ Encapsulation With Biodegradable Polymers

Abstract

It is known that the chief benefit of natural products such as essential oils is that they do not increase antibiotic
resistance compared to the long-term use of synthetic antibiotics. Essential oils demonstrate many applications
in various sectors for medicinal, agriculture, food, and health purposes due to their antibacterial, antiviral,
antifungal, anticarcinogenic, antimutagenic, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Although essential
oils have many useful properties, their chances of success and scale up at industrial level becomes a challenge
because they possess some limiting factors in their use such as hydrophobic property (which needs to be
encapsulated before use), high volatility, and high risk of deterioration upon direct exposure to heat, humidity,
light, or oxygen. Therefore, encapsulation of essential oils with polymers would be the ideal method for the
preservation of essential oils. This is because it offers benefits such as improved stability and water solubility,
effective protection against degradation, prevention of volatile components evaporation and enhance
antimicrobial activity against food-borne pathogens. It is clear from this review that using essential oils (EOs)
encapsulation in biopolymer-based materials could be one of the strategies and promising antimicrobial agents
for bacterial pathogens. However, further studies need to be done to research the properties of many other
biopolymers encapsulated essential oils due to their promising contribution in reducing environmental solid
waste caused by conventional plastics.